The rise of cord blood banking

Growing numbers of expectant parents are choosing to bank their baby’s cord blood privately in a private or family cord blood bank. An increasing number of new parents are choosing to privately bank their baby’s blood cord cells. While the chance of the baby requiring stem cell treatment as a child is low, scientific developments enabling stem cells to be multiplied may make cord blood banking a source of cancer treatment for the child’s entire life. Further emerging technologies to use stem cells are possible in regenerative medicine areas such as cerebral palsy, brain trauma, diabetes and hearing loss.Many parents view it as an insurance policy.

Scientific developments enabling stem cells to be multiplied may make cord blood banking a source of cancer treatment for the child. Further emerging technologies to use stem cells are possible in regenerative medicine areas including cerebral palsy, brain trauma, diabetes and hearing loss.

Of the 41,000 Australians who have chosen to bank cord blood, over 23,000 have chosen to do so privately. Only 1 per cent of Australian parents choose to bank their baby’s blood, but the numbers are rising. In the US, around 5 per cent of parents bank their baby’s cord blood privately, and in Singapore and Korea, it’s over 20 per cent.

Private banking means that the cells can only be used by the baby or a close relative, while public banking is a system whereby you can choose to donate your baby’s blood cord for public use.

Current v future use

“There are two main areas where cord blood can be used; current use and future use,” says Associate Professor Mark Kirkland, medical director of Australia’s largest private cord blood bank, Cell Care.

While cord blood can currently only be used in Australia for transplantation in cases of leukemia and autoimmune diseases, the potential future uses are much broader, Professor Kirkland adds.

Cord blood is currently being investigated in clinical trials around the world for a wide range of disorders including spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy, brain injury, type-1 diabetes and in the repair of diseased or damaged tissues.

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG) supports the collection of altruistic and directed cord blood donations in at risk families.

The routine collection of directed donations in low-risk families (private UCB banking) must consider both the cost and an uncertain probability of future benefit.”

In a recent article, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists president Dr Rupert Sherwood said, “..the process, which can cost between $3000 and $5000 for about 25 years storage, isn't simply a celebrity fad. It has potential benefits because in the very rare circumstances where a baby develops some particular blood disease such as leukemia, then a bone marrow transfusion from the stem cells in the blood can be used and they'll be a perfect match for that baby."

"There's no downside to it and the potential future benefits may be more than just for the diseases we know about," he said.

Making a match

While the case for private banking is that it provides a perfect cell match for the baby whose cord it was collected from, some experts argue that a donor match for existing treatments can almost always be found in a public bank.

Referencing the experience at the New York Cord Blood Bank and the National Marrow Donor Program in the US in identifying suitably matched donors for patients, RANZCOG says that a collection of 20,000 cord blood units will enable 80-90 per cent of Australian requests to be met.

Furthermore, in some cases donor cells may actually be preferable. For example, in the case of some children with leukemia, it may be safer and more effective to use stem cells from another baby, since these can help to get rid of any remaining cancer cells from the blood stream.

However, Professor Kirkland argues that some of these theories are based on incomplete studies. “And with a lot of these new treatments for diabetes and cerebral palsy, for example, the requirement is for the child’s own cord blood,” he adds.

And of course the benefit of having your own blood cells at your disposal in the event of having a disorder or injury is that your body won’t reject a transplant of its own cells.

But while research shows promise that these stem cells may be put to good use in the future. For now usage is relatively limited (that is, for childhood leukemia’s and some other cancers) autologous stem cells may become an important part of future medicine. However, this depends on successful research and this of course will always be speculative.

This article was written by Nicola Conville for Kidspot, Australia's best pregnancy, labour and birth resource.